Patent US 5,377,355

The method and apparatus of the present invention may be utilized to automatically initiate additional procedures in a data processing system with regard to documents stored therein. A selected document, such an invention disclosure document, is identified and evaluations of the selected document are automatically solicited from a selected group of evaluators enrolled within the data processing system. In one embodiment of the present invention the evaluators are automatically selected in response to the technical or functional subject matter of the document. Each evaluation of a document is then stored and the content of all evaluations are then utilized to automatically initiate an additional procedure. For example, if a majority of evaluations indicate that a selected document should be closed, the file is automatically closed and a report is automatically generated indicating this action. Similarly, a number of evaluations indicating a request for additional information may be utilized, in accordance with the method and apparatus of the present invention, to automatically initiate a search request directed to an appropriate search facility. A display of a summary of all evaluations is also preferably provided so that a computer user may override or counterman the automatic initiation of a selected procedure.